COMP-so-NAITH-us?

["King, Norm" <nking.ucs@smtp.usi.edu>]

In the Ultimate Dinosaur Book, Lambert gives the correct pronounciation 
of Compsognathus as "komp-soh-NAY-thus"--the "g" is silent, as in 
"gnathos."  However, the on-line Omnipedia shows "komp-SOG-na-thus" or 
"KOMP-sog-NAY-thus."  The version I provide to my students is 
"COMP-so-NAITH-us," allowing that a hard "g" would be OK, but not 
preferred, as "COMP-sugg-NAITH-us."

Lambert shows "seen-ag-NAYTH-us" for Caenagnathus (hard "g"), but to be 
consistent it would be "seen-ah-NAY-thus."  I like the NAYTH/NAITH 
syllable, since "thus" has a hard "th," and the dinosaur names do not.

We have discussed pronounciation before, and my position was that it 
isn't terribly important.  There is no agreement for certain names, but I 
wonder if there is a preferred way for Compsognathus?

How do you vote?  There are implications for non-dinosaurian critters, 
such as Cynognathus ("SEEN-oh-NAITH-us"?).


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Norman R. King                                       tel:  (812) 464-1794
Department of Geosciences                            fax:  (812) 464-1960
University of Southern Indiana
8600 University Blvd.
Evansville, IN 47712                      e-mail:  nking.ucs@smtp.usi.edu